Important reminders for GI surgeries

While at the Fetch conference in Long Beach, California, Michael Jaffe, DVM, MS, CCRP, DACVS, sat down with dvm360 for an interview and shared what he thinks is the most important thing to keep mind when dealing with gastrointestinal surgeries.

The following is a partial transcript of the video.

Michael Jaffe, DVM, MS, CCRP, DACVS: My name is Michael Jaffe. I'm an associate professor and the service chief of small animal surgery at Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine. I'm a board-certified surgeon. I'm also certified in canine physical therapy and rehab and oversee the physical therapy and rehab program at Mississippi State, as well. My practice is probably about 90% or more orthopedic surgery at this point.

The most important thing for the GI surgeries is making sure that we're getting good closure of whatever tissue we're going into. For instance, if we're taking a foreign body out of the stomach or the intestine, making sure that the closure is appropriate, that we're not causing damage to the blood supply to the tissue, and that we're not getting any leakage. So paying real strict attention to appropriate acquisition of the tissue, leak testing the intestine, make sure there's no leakage, and promoting whatever we can to improve the ability of that tissue to heal.